Everything is a Journey…

And this is how ours begins…
At the last mission trip meeting, my mom had the suggestion of arriving at the church at 2:30 in the morning to handle packing and paperwork needs before heading on the road. Great idea, right? That way we would have plenty of time to get everything done before leaving the church parking lot. Excellent.

Alix spends the night, and we set alarms for 2:00 A.M. so that we can throw on some clothes and run out the door, bags already packed and in the Prius. 2:20, we should be out of the house and headed to the church. Everything’s planned out. Right?

Wrong.

You see, there’s a tired Brazilian currently living in my room who is rumored to have shut off the alarm when it was beeping at 2 in the morning. Which is fine, other than the fact that it didn’t wake Alix or me. About an hour later – that’s 3 o’clock, by the way – is when we were awakened by the landline ringing. “Who the heck would be calling at this time in the morning…” I thought as I walked to get the phone.

Caller ID? Benjamin Lovell. Our youth group leader. No doubt calling to say, “It’s 3 A.M. Where are you?”
Alix and I scrambled to get dressed, luckily with all garments facing forward and right side out. Alix called Ben or Ben called Alix or something… And I heard Alix saying something along the lines of, “I don’t know when we can leave. We’ll be there as soon as we can. I don’t know.”

On my way to my mom’s room, I somehow acquired Alix’s phone and was talking to Ben, and he said something about a gas station and a bus, to which I replied. I have no idea what I agreed to in my response, but I know I did reply.

My mom heard me at the door, welcomed me into her room (as welcoming as anyone can be at 3 in the morning), looked at the clock to find a time much later than 2:00, and then jumped out of bed and got ready to go.

Hearing something about gas station, we went to the gas station around the corner. We stood outside the car, bags sitting in the parking lot. We waited in the cold(ish). We began to say our goodbyes…

And then we drove back to the house?

Alix got another call saying that someone was at our house to pick us up and take us to the church.

Okay…

We went back to our house to find Ben knocking on the door and Jody (the pastor’s wife) standing by her car in our driveway. At this point, it’s about 3:20. Embarrassed greetings were exchanged from all parties, and luggage was transferred from one vehicle to another.

Another hug for my mom, and we were on the road. (I can’t decide if I should include that Ben drove much faster than legal…) We arrived at the church at 3:30, and the rest (so far) is really very insignificant. We walked on the bus, took our seats, prayed, and headed on the road. Alix and I are about to burst from the anxiety of it all, but really, everything is a journey, and what’s a journey without a little chaos?